Communications networks continue to have a growing role in today's world. FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram illustrating an example of a communications network 100. As used herein, a “communications network” or a “network,” for example, network 100, is group of two or more devices (i.e., network elements), for example, network devices 102, 104 and 106, interconnected by one or more segments of transmission media on which communications may be exchanged between the devices. Each segment may be any of a plurality of types of transmission media, including one or more electrical or optical wires or cables made of metal and/or optical fiber, air (e.g., using wireless transmission over carrier waves) or any combination of these transmission media. As used herein, “plurality” means two or more.
As networks become more complex and continue to include more network devices, the importance of efficiently managing these devices has grown. As used herein, a “network device” is a device configured as part of a network. Such network devices may be and/or include any of a variety of types of devices, including, but not limited to, switching devices, workstations, personal computers, terminals, laptop computers, end stations, servers, gateways, registers, directories, databases, printers, fax machines, telephones, transmitters, receivers, repeaters, and any combination thereof.
Managing network devices is referred to herein as “device management,” and includes configuring network devices, where one or more these network devices are typically configured remotely (i.e., from another network device residing at a different location on the network) by exchanging messages (e.g., packets) between network devices over network media.
To facilitate configuring large numbers of network devices, object types often are defined to represent aspects of network devices, for example, status, location (e.g., Internet Protocol (IP) address and/or Media Access Control (MAC) address), port characteristics, device description, other aspects, permissible states of any aspects, or any combination thereof.